London days..

On Sunday 24th we took a short trip to London, with Grandpa & the kiddies. After almost a 2 hour delay (where we were stuck on the plane!) we landed safely and took the train to Victoria, where we were staying.


Itinery: 
  Sunday - Sight seeing, dinner@Giraffe

   

Monday - Bus tour, London Eye

Tuesday - Buckingham Palace, British museum, Hamleys, Planet Holywood

Wednesday - Natural History museum, Home

There is so much to see & do in London, we had a busy few days. There was a lot of walking, but when looking at the beautiful architecture you don't mind so much. Having brought Grandpa we did use the tube on one occasion, not particularly pleasant but a necessary evil.

Still so much I want to see, but think it will be a trip for 2 next time!

:)

Slacker!.....

Ok, ok I know I haven't updated in a while, been busy and have even managed to fit in a trip to London!

So I never got round to trying out that danish recipe, but did have some for breakfast on my trip instead. lol

The 21st was the children's school Halloween disco, the usual PTA Mafia run event with the usual costume & pumpkin competitions, the winners of which are nearly always the same every year. But this year in C's class the usual winner wasn't going, better things to do than school disco's already at the tender age of 9. So maybe we were in with a chance!

Ready to scare!

We took our pumpkin totem along in the hopes it would be a winning original entry! So after some dancing (or jumping and shuffling anyway!) the competitions started, in age order. Eventually it was C's turn and......YES.....HE WON!
Just a tub of sweets, but it meant a lot to him - and me, at least we won something at school!

Unfortunately Pumpkin totem didn't win, and is now rotting nicely in the back garden - ewww!

:)

National Baking Week

So National Baking Week is 18- 24th October and so far this week I haven't baked a thing!

I would love to try something different to the usual cakes, buns, loaves I usually make. I had spotted some lovely danish pastries on the link above so maybe I'll have a go at those when I have a free hour or two!

Red Velvet

 
I'm also looking for some new spooky Halloween themed ideas. I always make something from the pumpkin innards - soup and cake or pie.
I made some gorgeous red velvet cupcakes last month and the children suggested I make them again for halloween as they were a bit scary!

So anyone has any suggestions let me know.
:)

I love Autumn!

I love Autumn - it's beautiful colours, crisp fallen leaves and fabulous food!

This is the time of year for fabulous festivals too. I've taken the children to a couple over the weekend, we've enjoyed carving pumpkins and apples, delicious fresh apple juice wonderful pears and luscious pumpkin soup.

choosing our pumpkin

I love getting the whole family involved in the great outdoor activities. Hopefully the weather will stay dry and we can have fun collecting conkers in the woods over the next week!

Scary Pumpkin Totem!

 Hope everyone is enjoying the season as much as we are!
:)

Vampires Suck! but does the movie?

Armed with sweeties (chocolate of course - Mars Planets, cos I know you really wanted to know!) my sister and I went with C to see this move this evening, the cinema was full, lots of noisy teenagers wanting to see this!

This movie is brought to us by the same guys who made the 'Scary Movie' so that gives you an idea of what to expect.

Lead actress Jenn Proske does an admirable job of mimicking Kirsten Stewart as 'Becca' our angst ridden heroine and the boys are simply eye candy with the contract demanding they whip off their tops at regular 10 minute intervals.
Sticking closely to the main story lines of first two Twilight movies albeit condensed into a short 80mins this movie makes a lots of gag references and plenty of innuendos.
The movie makes a lot of references to current pop culture, Jersey Shore & the Kardashians for example, and will never achieve cult movies status but it was mildly humorous in a giggly juvenile way and although some of the gags went completely over his head my son thought it was 'the funniest film ever!'
So go have a giggle but don't take to too seriously!


BTW does anyone know why there are crunchy ones in Mar Planets?

I thought as they are supposed to be bits of Mars Bar they would be plain chocolate, nougat and caramel balls - but was surprised to find malteser type bits (only not as nice). Ho hum....another of life's little mysteries!

:)

Anyone for cake?......

So oranges are good for you....yep?

But.....this is chocolate week so I'm sure we can take this orange and mix it up a bit!

This cake is a rich, moist delicious cake with a gorgeous orangy tang throughout. I wouldn't even want to work out the calorie content though, but as Cheryl would say 'You're worth it!'



Dark Chocolate & Valencia Orange Cake

For the cake mix I need:
1 orange

100g plain chocolate

3 eggs
280g caster sugar
240ml sunflower oil
25g cocoa powder
250g plain flour
1.5tsp baking powder

Chocolate Ganache topping:

200g plain chocolate

225ml double cream

Now for the tricky bit:

oil, eggs & sugar

1. pierce orange and cook in boiling water for 30mins. Whizz in a food processor until smooth and leave to cool

2. Preheat oven to 160C & grease and line a 9" cake tin (although I used 2 1lb loaf tins to make serving easier). Melt the 100g plain chocolate, leave to cool.

3. Beat eggs, sugar & oil (lightly) add the pureed orange then stir in the cooled melted chocolate. Sift in the cocoa, flour and baking powder. Mix well, pour into your lined tin. bake in the oven for approx 55 mins. Check the cake after 45mins and cover with tin foil if it is browning too much. Cool for 10mins then turn out. 

 4. To make the chocolate ganache, melt the 200g plain chocolate. Gently boil the double cream then pour it over the melted chocolate and stir. Leave to cool until firm enough to spread over the cake (This could take about 90mins)

Decorate as you wish:

Lastly boil kettle, make cup of tea and enjoy! 

:)

Coming to your senses......

chocoFollowing my chocolatey theme I tried a new Kit Kat Caramel Cream Senses today.

 This is a small bar 165kcal so handy for a sweet treat if you are counting the calories!

An addition to the original Senses this bar is the usual wafer base divided into 5 chunky pieces and has a thick creamy caramel topping, which is rich and smooth. I think the idea may have worked better with liquid gooey topping as the chocolate and caramel is quite sweet - but maybe that can be a future idea!



As this is aimed at the girlies there is another bonus to this bar, it is supporting Breast Cancer Campaign - the blurb reads that they are donating £100,000 plus another 10p per code activated. You have to go to www.facebook.co/kitkat between 1st September 2010 and 30th June 2011 to input your code (printed inside the wrapper)



So it is really important that you use the code - I imagine a lot of these bars will be purchased and the wrapper discarded without people realising they need to do anything for that 10p claim - meaning Breast Cancer Campaign will lose out :(

I'm off to input my code now....laters!

:)

Cookie Monster!

In honour of Chocolate Week today I baked some Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies!!

What to put in:

100g Butter
100g Light muscavado sugar
100g Chocolate chips (I used 50g white & 50g milk)
150g Self raising flour
1tbsp Golden syrup
1tbsp Cocoa powder



How to do it:
Heat oven to 160C (Gas mark 3)
Beat butter and sugar in a bowl, add syrup and mix.
Mix the cocoa and flour then work in half the flour.

Add the chocolate chips and remaining flour,
When combined divide into 14 balls and place on baking trays.

Bake for 12 minutes.
Cool on trays for 10mins then enjoy!

ps: don't count the cookies in my picture....well we had to test them!

:)

So, it's Chocolate Week!

Ha ha, as if I needed any excuse to indulge in some creamy delicious chocolatey goodness!

While out shopping, this bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss caught my eye - with the delicate creamy swirl on the wrapper and the name, well it sounded like just what I needed!

So I settled down to indulge with a cup of tea. The bar is a chunky 6 pieces and 220kcal. Enough to share if you can be persuaded to!

The chocolate was smooth and creamy, the centre a light bubbly truffle texture. I broke the centre out of its chocolate surrounding and let it melt on my tongue, it was creamy, bubbly and smooth with a light vanilla flavour.

I felt the vanilla got a little lost in the richness of the milk chocolate, but it was a delicious change from a solid milk chocolate bar.
:)

I love dinner....

I love food, colours, flavours, textures - fantastic food......but I am vegetarian so my love of food excludes meat!

I do love a good 'Sunday dinner' so I need a quality meat replacement. Today I decided to try Quorn Peppered steaks. I served them with mash, veg & yorkshire puddings :)

They really very tasty, moist and succulent with zingy cracked peppercorns on the top. At 107 calories each they are good for those watching their weight too.

Meat replacements have come a long way from cardboard style, flat, tasteless products!

Veggie x

Belfast Mela

Mela is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘to meet’. The Belfast Mela is a multi-cultural festival and a fantastic family day out. This year it was held in Botanic Gardens, Belfast.

It is a celebration of culture and creativity through a unique programme of music, dance, food and visual arts.

We had a fabulous day, trying food, crafting and dancing in the sunshine! Looking forward to next year

x

Dublin/Lismore Trip...

We planned a trip to Lismore, Co. Waterford - as this is a fair distance to travel with the kids we planned a midway stop in Dublin.

Itinery:
Thursday - Dublin Zoo

View from our apartment over the Liffy

Elephant

Friday - Museum of Art & History, Natural History Museum

Guinness

Collins Barracks - museum of Art & History

 

Natural History

Saturday - Lismore - Home

Sock Monkey...

I asked Little R what he would like most of all in the world - his reply 'A sock Monkey'.....

...Well of course!

So I got a new pair of his socks, found a sock monkey template through Google and spent the afternoon cutting, sewing & stuffing!

Fortunately we had some fluff left over from the Bear Party & buttons from the Wire ring wrapping  so there wasn't much outlay for this project! However not having a sewing machine meant every stitch was painstakingly placed by hand.

Pip

Little R is delighted with his new friend and called him Pip :)

A success x

Growing.....

My little garden has sprouted up a bit:

Chillis, tomatoes, lettuce & herbs

I've also got some chillis - can't remember what type, but will have to start eating chilli with everything now!

Green chilli

Hot stuff x

Graze.com

I get a weekly delivery from Graze.com.

With the tagline 'Nature delivered' they essentially select healthy snacks based on your preferences (you choose on the website) and deliver them to your door with the idea that you eat these varied and interesting little boxes instead of snacking on biscuits!

Recent delivery

I love getting my deliveries - they are so handy and delicious! It is a fun was of trying new foods and if you discover that you don;t like something you can choose not to have it again.

Snacking x

Isle of Man trip

It's a long time since we visited the Isle of Man, I think C was just a baby last time!

We travelled across with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. We had the car with us and arrived early in the morning.

Itinery:
Wednesday - Arriving, sight-seeing, dinner

Roy & Steve Hislop

Amusing sign - Port Erin

Thursday - Curragh's wildlife park

Friday - Laxey Wheel, Snaefell Electric Railway, dinner @the Bay Inn, Oyster Festival on the beach

Saturday - Castle Rushen, Peel Castle,  House of Manannan Museum

Sunday - Boat home 

A busy few days in pictures!

Tired x

Tayto Castle..

Tayto are a local company who make delicious crisps and you can visit the actual working factory :)

You do have to book in advance and wear some protective clothing, but you get to sample freshly cooked crisps during the tour - there is also a quiz on the way round where you can win packs of crisps on leaving!

We also had the added bonus of meeting Mr Tayto!

Stuffed x

Moving on....

Now the cockerels have begun to crow it is time to move them on, unfortunately the Lackenvelder has become too noisy to keep.

We have advertised for a good home for the 2 boys - they will be going to a farm where they can crow til their hearts content!

x